Carton for circular articles



Jan. 17, 1967 R. M. HURLEY CARTON FOR CIRCULAR ARTICLES Filed Feb. 24, 1954 ffy/MMM a@ United States Patent O 3,298,592 CARTON FOR CIRCULAR ARTICLES Robert M. Hurley, Lexington, Mass., assignor to Container Corporation of America, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware K Filed Feb. 24, 1964, Ser. No. 346,769 1 Claim. (Cl. 229-16) The present invention relates to paperboard cartons and more particularly to cartons designed for retention and transportation of circular or ring-shaped fragile articles of cylindrical cross section.

An important object of the invention is to provide an improved, collapsible form of carton which may readily be set up to receive a circular or ring-shaped article and which will afford a high degree of protection to the article with a minimum amount of paperboard.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a paperboard carton of collapsible form having expandable, bellows type edge walls arranged to be expanded only part Way toward squared or right angled relation to the carton side walls, whereby the carton edge walls may support a ring-shaped article of cylindrical cross section in a manner to provide a high degree of cushioning with a minimum area of paperboard.

A further object is to provide an improved form of package comprising a ring-shaped article of cylindrical cross section held in a suspended manner within a carton.

A still further object is to provide an improved package including a plurality of separate lled cartons containing ring-shaped articles, all of such articles being held within a shipping container in such manner as to provide maximum cushioning.

Additional and more specific objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is an elevational view of the carton as it appears when in expanded condition and showing in broken lines a ring-shaped article carried therein.

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view, taken on line 2--2 of FIGURE l, showing how the ring-shaped article is held suspended by the edge wall panels;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary, vertical section view showing ring-shaped articles packaged within the carton of the .present invention and contained within a shipping container;

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of a preferred form of blank from which the carton of the present invention may be produced; and

FIGURE 5 is a cross-sectional View illustrating the manner in which one or more cartons may be supported, for display purposes on a horizontal bar or rack.

The carton of the present invention is particularly advantageous in the packaging of fragile ring-shaped articles such as neon light tubes. The carton, as shown, comprises two principal side Wall panels having expandable edge walls on three sides and having a closure on the fourth side which may be secured in position and which includes an expandable edge wall construction simt ilar to the other edge walls. The carton is preferably construction in Hat collapsed condition in which arrangement the edge walls are in collapsed form and extend outwardly of the edges of the side walls.

Referring first to the blank, the carton comprises two principal, rectangular side wall panels 1 and 2. Panel 1 will sometimes be referred to as the rear side wall panel and panel 2 will sometimes be referred to as the front side wall panel. These two panels are connected by an edge wall portion which comprises narrow sections 3 and 4 hinged to each other along fold line 5 and hinged re- 3,298,592 Patented Jan. 17, 1967 lCC spectively to panels 1 and 2 along fold lines 6 and 7. The edge wall sections 3 and 4 are preferably of trape- Zoidal configuration and are symmetrical. The ends of these sections are cut along diagonal lines 8, 8 and 9, 9 which, respectively, are at angles of slightly less than with the fold lines 6 and 7 which they intersect.

The rear side panel 1 preferably has edge wall portions carried at each lateral side. These portions may be identical and comprise symmetrical sections 10 and 11, and 10a and 11a, the sections being hinged together along respective fold lines 12 and 12a. Sections 10 and 10a are hinged respectively to the panel 1 along fold lines 13 and 13a. As in the case with the edge wall portion between the panels the sections are cut at their ends along diagonal lines 14, 15 and 14a, 15a. The edges 14 and 14a are cut at angles of slightly less than 135 relative to the respective fold lines 13 and 13a. The edges 15 and 15a are symmetrical with the edges 14 and 14a and are at angles of slightly less than 135 relative to the outer edges 16 and 16a of the respective sections 11 and 11a.

The front side panel 2 carries at its lateral edges attaching flaps 17 and 17a which are secured as by means of adhesive to the respective edge wall sections 11 and 11a, such edge Wall sections being first folded flat against their companion sections 10 and 10a. When so secured, the parts appear as illustrated in FIGURE 2, showing attaching flap 17a secured to Wall section 11a.

The front side wall panel 2 carries a closure portion which is substantially of the same size and symmetrical with the edge wall portions already described. This closure portion comprises secti-ons 18 and 19 connected along fold line 20. The section 18 is hinged to panel 2 along fold line 21. At its free edge the section 19 is hingedly connected along fold line 22 with a closure panel 23 arranged to lie flat against the outer face of wall panel 1, as shown in FIGURE 1.

The sections 18 and 19 are substantially identical in their contours with the previously described edge wall portions, these sections also being cut at their ends along diagonal lines 24, 24 and 25, 25. The edges 24, 24 are cut at angles of slightly less than 135 relative to the fold line 21; and the edges 25, 25 are similarly cut at angles of slightly less than 135 relative to the fold line 22.

A flap 26 is preferably hinged at 26a along the outer edge of the side wall panel 1, this flap being adapted to be folded at an angle to its attached panel to lie against the closure section 19 in the set up form of the carton.

For the purpose of securing the flap 23 in place there are preferably formed on its free outer edge a pair of wing tabs 27, 27 which are engageable within openings 28, 28 in wall panel 1. Openings 28, 28 may be formed by striking out tabs 29, 29 which are left hinged along fold lines 30, 30.

The carton may be assembled i-n collapsed form by folding closure sections 11 and 11a t-o lie against their companion sections 10 and 10a. After adhesive is applied to such folded sections 11 and' 11a the wall panel 2 and attached parts are folded along hinge line 5 to lie flat against wall panel 1. This will bring the attaching aps 17 and 17a into llat engagement with the respective sections 11 and 11a. As soon as the adhesive has become set the carton is ready to receive its contents, which as herein shown is a ring-shaped glass tube 31 having a cylindrical cr-oss section. See FIGURE 2. The tube 31 is simply slid into the mouth of the carton between the hinged ap 26 on panel 1 and the closure sections 24, 25 on panel 2.

The dimensions of the edge wall sections and closure sections 18 and 19 are selected as best shown in FIGURE 2 so that when the sections are disposed in approximately right angular relations, the tube will bear approximately centrally against the edge wall and closure sections. In

addition, the panels 1 and 2 will be held spaced from the lateral surfaces of the tube. Thus, when the closure sections 18 and 19 are in nal position, as shown in FIG- URE 5, the tube will be held suspended out of contact with both principal wall panels 1 and 2 and will be in contact with the edge wall and closure sections at a total of eight places. This will be apparent from an inspection of FIGURE 1.

With the tube in place, the package may be carried conveniently by folding inwardly the hinged tab 32 formed in the panel 23 and the companion hinged tab 33 formed in the front side panel 1. The opening formed by cutting the tab 33 is larger than the tab 32 thus making it easy for the tab 32 to be sw-ung inwardly as soon as the tab 33 has been swung.

As shown in FIGURE 5, a small tab 34 may be cut from front side panel 2. When the tab is pushed in or pulled out it will provide an opening for receipt of a rod or rack for supporting a plurality of packages.

The cushioning effect produced by engagement of the tube with the edge wall and closure sections is of particular advantage when it is desired to transport a plurality of tube packages within a shipping container. As shown in FIGURE 3, a shipping container is selected having interior dimensions slightly less than the overall dimensions of the carton when enclosing a tube. When the outer hinge lines, such as hinge lines 12 and 12a contact against the respective walls 35 and 36 of the shipping container the meeting edges of the sections and 11 of one edge wall and the meeting edges of the sections 10a and 11a of the other edge wall are forced inwardly by a small amount, thus wedging these sections snugly against the surfaces of the tube, and effectively preventing movement of the tubes within the outer container.

It is to be noted that, by cutting the ends of the trape- Zoidal edge wall forming sections on diagonal lines which are symmetrical with each other and at angles of slightly less than 135 relative to the hinge lines along which the sections are connected to the side wall panels, the diagonal edges of one set of sections tends to abut the adjacent edges of an adjoining set of sections and the point at which this abutment takes place occurs after the sections have been expanded or moved apart about 90.

A width for the individual edge wall forming sections is selected relatively to the diameter of the cross-section of the tube such that engagement of the t-ube against the individual sections will occur approximately mid-way of the width of the sections. By this arrangement side walls are maintained well spaced from the lateral surfaces of the tube. Thus, when packages of tubes are stacked sideby-side as shown in FIGURE 3, there will be air spaces maintained between the tubes and the likelihood of breakage will be minimized.

While the present description sets forth a preferred embodiment of the invention, various changes may be made in the construction as disclosed without departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is therefore desired that the present embodiment be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, reference being had to the appended claims rather than to the foregoing description to indicate the scope of the invention.

It will also be noted that the arrangement of the blank may be changed slightly from the layout illustrated in FIGURE 4, hinged attaching closure panel 23 to the side of front panel, instead of to the end of panel 1. This would not change the overall shape of the carton in erected condition.

I claim:

In a collapsible multi-sided carton formed from a unitary blank of foldable paperboard, for holding an annular or multi-sided article, the combination of:

(a) a pair of front and rear side walls spaced from each other;

(b) end walls interconnecting said side walls at each side of the carton;

(c) each of said end Walls being bellows-type, expandable and including a pair of relatively narrow elongated end wall panels hingedly connected to each other along the longitudinal center line of said end wall;

(d) one of said end walls having one panel hinged to a side edge of the rear side wall and having the other panel hinged to a closure flap which is detachably connectable to the front side wall;

(e) each of the other end walls having their panels hinged to the front and rear side walls respectively;

(f) each of said panels being trapezoidal in shape and having free end edges converging outwardly away from said hinge line;

(g) each of said end wall panels having its end edges free from connection to the end edges of adjacent end wall panels, when the carton is in a at collapsed condition, but having its end edges in substantial abutting contact with the end edges of adjacent end wall panels, when the carton is filled with a packaged article, to close the corners of the ca rton.

References Cited bythe Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,225,048 12/1940 Hasin 206-62 2,333,798 10/1943 Kner.

3,001,686 9/1961 Shepherd 229-40 3,084,843 4/1963 Urban 229-8 X LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner. 

